Kaila Colbin is founder and CEO of Boma, the 2022 Kea WCNZ Friend of New Zealand award winner and a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator. She is a renowned and sought after international public speaker, having presented to more than 25,000 people about the exponential technological trends coming our way and how we can be more intentional, intelligent and courageous about the future.

A serial entrepreneur since the age of 22, Kaila has dedicated more than 15 years to enhancing Aotearoa’s global connectedness and championing Aotearoa on the world stage. She spearheaded the hugely successful SingularityU New Zealand and Australia summits and was formerly the curator and licensee for TEDxChristchurch in New Zealand and TEDxScottBase in Antarctica.

She is a co-founder and trustee of the non-profit Ministry of Awesome and has extensive governance experience, including serving as chair of the New York-based Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts, and deputy chair of ChristchurchNZ and CORE Education Ltd. 

Kaila became a certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator after training with Brené Brown and has worked with thousands of people to increase courage as a core competency. She is also a certified ExO consultant, a Climate Project Ambassador who trained with Al Gore, and a project management professional. 

A native New Yorker, Kaila speaks English, Spanish, French and Italian. She holds a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration from Cornell University. Her purpose in life is to be an uplifting presence.

Dare to Lead™ is based on the research of Dr Brené Brown

Brené is a research professor at the University of Houston where she holds the Huffington Foundation – Brené Brown Endowed Chair at The Graduate College of Social Work. Brené is also a visiting professor at The University of Texas Austin McCombs School of Business.

She has spent the past two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy, and is the author of five #1 New York Times bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness, and her latest book, Dare to Lead, which is the culmination of a seven-year study on courage and leadership.

Brené hosts the Unlocking Us podcast, and her TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 50 million views. She is also the first researcher to have a filmed lecture on Netflix. The Call to Courage special debuted on the streaming service on April 19, 2019.

Brené lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, Steve. They have two children, Ellen and Charlie.

This programme is delivered by Boma founder and CEO and Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator Kaila Colbin.